Chapter 12: The Eerie Deck
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Duelist League, Division Four, Shen District Arena.
[Qian Gongque] vs. [Bian Yuelong]
Music shook the entire arena. Cheers rose and fell in waves, while fireworks of every color bloomed brilliantly, illuminating the whole field.
The spectators waved fortress flags and held their banners high, shouting and cheering in excitement.
“Eight thousand!”
Commentator Red Rice leaped straight out of his chair!
Clutching his microphone, the veins in his neck bulged as he roared, “The Bone King! Attack power: eight thousand!”
His shout nearly blew the roof off!
The spectators grew even more frenzied. Every one of them screamed as though injected with adrenaline.
“Awesome!”
“That’s insane!”
“How is anyone supposed to withstand that?”
“Bian Yuelong is finished!”
“Qian Gongque, crush them!”
“Bone King! Bone King! Bone King!”
One burly man got so excited that he flung his wig clean off.
Beside him, a woman spat sunflower-seed shells all over the neck of the man in front.
The instant the Bone King’s attack appeared, the atmosphere in the dueling arena reached its climax.
“Hahaha!” Wang Gu, controlling the Bone deck, threw back his head and laughed, his eyes feverish.
“Do you see now? This is the power of the Bone deck!”
Jiang Yan, Bian Yuelong’s duelist, stared with terrified eyes.
He turned toward his team’s rest area with a pleading look and said in a trembling voice, “I…”
Captain Qin Dongzhu’s face had gone deathly pale. His lips trembled, but he did not know what to say. Helplessly, he closed his eyes.
The league was simply this cruel.
Once the outcome was decided, there was only one rule:
The weak got beaten.
Lin Yu, the other team member, could not remain calm. He roared toward Wang Gu and the opposing rest area, “Don’t take it too far!”
“Jiang Yan’s cards are all exposed. Show some mercy!”
Jiang Yan’s situation was completely laid bare. He had no defensive options, only 1,400 life points, and his Mighty Striker had an attack power of just 2,300.
The Bone King needed only 4,000 attack power to finish him.
Yet Wang Gu insisted on performing a string of pointless maneuvers, stacking the Bone King’s attack power higher and higher purely for show.
The spectators’ cheers grew more frenzied, and his fame continued to rise.
A transparent barrier separated the rest areas and the stands from the dueling field. It would not be removed until the duel ended.
In truth, Wang Gu could not hear any of the noise outside. He could only stare straight at Jiang Yan, savoring his opponent’s fear.
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“Yes, yes—that’s exactly the expression I wanted!”
“Hahaha—”
“Bone King!”
“Attack the Super Athlete Mighty Striker!”
“Die!”
The Bone King raised its razor-sharp claws and charged at the Mighty Striker, laughing wildly as blazing white light engulfed the entire dueling field.
A shrill cry rang out. The Mighty Striker was torn to pieces, scattering into specks of starlight before vanishing.
The shock wave blasted Jiang Yan several meters backward, sending him crashing into the barrier.
His life points instantly dropped to zero, and a terrifying electric discharge erupted across his body.
“Argh—!”
Jiang Yan let out a piercing howl and collapsed helplessly to his knees.
[The winner is]
[The Blue Side]
The intelligent referee’s icy voice echoed through the arena, and the stands erupted once more.
The isolation barrier withdrew. Medical robots stepped onto the field and lifted Jiang Yan onto a stretcher.
“Jiang Yan!”
Qin Dongzhu, Lin Yu, and the female team members Tang Xin and Mu Ningning rushed forward anxiously.
“How bad are Jiang Yan’s injuries…?”
After a brief scan, the medical robot spoke in a cold voice.
[Third-degree burns over the skin, ventricular fibrillation, permanent nerve damage…]
[There is no danger to his life. However—]
[He will be unable to compete in the Duelist League again.]
“Unable to compete again…”
The instant those words were spoken, the faces of every Bian Yuelong team member turned ashen. They stood frozen in place.
“Damn you!”
Lin Yu turned toward Wang Gu on the field, the veins on his forehead bulging as he clenched his fists and prepared to charge onto the stage.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Qin Dongzhu shouted, cutting off his movement. “Haven’t we got enough problems already?”
Lin Yu managed to regain a little composure, but fury still smoldered inside him. If he had not already been eliminated, he would have put on his duel disk and butchered Wang Gu on the spot.
The Duelist League was a five-versus-five team competition. Including substitutes, each team could have up to six members, but only five could take the field.
Once a player had been defeated, they could not compete again.
“Damn it all…”
Lin Yu gritted his teeth, struggling to suppress his emotions.
“What good would that do?” Qin Dongzhu said through clenched teeth. Both fists were tightly balled, and anger flickered in his eyes.
He walked to the officials’ platform and lowered his voice. “We request a timeout.”
The host pressed a red button, and a mechanical announcement sounded:
[Bian Yuelong has called a timeout.]
[09:59]
Each team was allowed only one timeout per match, lasting ten minutes.
“Boo!”
The Blue Side’s spectators jeered toward Bian Yuelong’s rest area.
The Red Side’s audience wore anxious expressions.
Bian Yuelong had fallen behind not only in momentum, but also in the state of the duel itself.
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The score was two to three. Bian Yuelong was down by one point.
But that single point was not the real problem.
Qin Dongzhu returned to the rest area, his expression grave.
“Captain…” Tang Xin and Mu Ningning hesitated, their voices edged with panic.
Bian Yuelong’s real problem was this:
The team’s last two starting players—both women—were afraid.
How could they not be, after seeing what had happened to Jiang Yan?
Wang Gu was a madman. He had chosen level-eight pain sensitivity. It would not be fatal, but the victim would very likely be bedridden for quite some time.
“I’ll go…”
Mu Ningning drew a deep breath, as though she had made up her mind.
“Mu Ningning, requesting deployment.”
Of the players still eligible to compete, only she and Tang Xin remained.
Tang Xin was a newcomer and already lacked experience. She could never withstand a situation like this.
Qin Dongzhu felt as though a great mountain were pressing down on him, making it hard to breathe.
After Bian Yuelong’s finances had run into trouble, they could no longer afford a coach. The captain was responsible for deck selection and deciding who would take the field.
“No. You can’t get hurt,” Qin Dongzhu said, rejecting Mu Ningning’s proposal.
“We can lose the match. At worst, we’ll win it back later. But we can’t let anyone else get hurt.”
“Send in the substitute!”
A sharp glint flashed through his eyes. He abruptly rose and walked toward the substitute bench.
Apart from their two starters, the team had arranged for one special substitute:
A duel-type numbered citizen named Kiki.
“How did the test go?” Qin Dongzhu asked the two examiners beside Kiki.
Kiki had shown no problems herself. The issue was that deck.
Mickey, an examiner from the Spirit Detention Bureau, shrugged. “She seems fine.”
“Probably,” the other examiner, Le Tong, said with a faint smile.
“Is she fit or not? Give me a straight answer!” Qin Dongzhu barked. “We can’t afford to lose this.”
“Give it a try,” Mickey said casually. “Kiki, take the field!”
A spark suddenly lit in Kiki’s vacant eyes. With fluid movements, she took out the test deck and placed it into the duel disk.
The moment the signal connected, something uncanny happened.
A thread of black seeped from the test deck, crawling up Kiki’s arm like a venomous snake. It moved over her shoulder and spread toward her chest.
“Argh—!”
Blood vessels burst across Kiki’s eyes. Clutching her chest in agony, she wailed before collapsing to the ground, convulsing.
“What’s going on?!” Qin Dongzhu exclaimed, taking half a step back.
Mickey, apparently unfazed, habitually waved toward the distance and called out in a flat voice:
“Doctor!”
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